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Change this 1 setting to keep Alexa from spoiling your Christmas surprise
Millions of Americans have made the switch from shopping in person at the mall to buying Christmas gifts online. The numbers this year have been staggering.
Amazon reported it had its most profitable day of all time on Cyber Monday, with a sales total reaching over $9 billion. That’s a lot of gifts! Tap or click here to see Amazon’s top-selling Cyber Monday items.
If you’re someone who ordered Christmas gifts through Amazon this year, you’re going to want to keep them a secret until the big day. Alexa might spill the beans unless you change this one setting.
Are you worried about snoops this Christmas? Don’t be
If you have Alexa-enabled devices in your home, you’ve probably noticed some strange lights from time to time. For example, if you have an Amazon Echo and say the wake word, you will see a blue ring of light around the top of the device.
That just means Alexa is listening to your request and waiting to respond. But there are other light colors that mean different things.
If you see a solid red light on your Echo, the microphone has been turned off and Alexa is not listening. Orange means your device is connecting to your network. Spinning blue ending with a purple flash means Do Not Disturb is active. And a quick blast of purple means Do Not Disturb is still enabled if you try talking to Alexa.
Those are just a few of the important light colors. There are more, and the one you need to pay close attention to around Christmas is the yellow pulsing light.
That one means you have a message in your inbox and it could be a notification that an item you’ve ordered is on the way or has been delivered. Anyone can ask Alexa what the notification is for, and she will tell them about the package. Just like that, the Christmas surprise is over.
Related: 7 Alexa secrets you didn’t know you needed
The good news is you can stop this from happening. Keep reading to learn how to turn notifications off.
How to stop Alexa from giving away your shopping secrets
Turning off notifications is the way to keep Alexa from sharing all your shopping secrets; however, you need to remember this will turn off all notifications.
If you don’t mind turning off all notifications, follow these steps:
- Open your Alexa app.
- Tap the three stacked lines in the upper right corner.
- Select Settings.
- Tap Notifications.
- Tap Amazon Shopping.
- Under Delivery Notifications, toggle both switches to the left next to Out for delivery and Delivered. This will stop others from knowing when gifts are on the way.
- Under Say or show item titles, toggle both switches to the left next to For items in delivery updates and Including items in your shopping cart marked as gifts, or those that might be gifts during major holidays.
Changing these settings will keep snoops from finding out what you’ve ordered them. Again, remember it will also stop all other notifications coming through your Alexa-enabled devices, so if you still want them, don’t adjust these settings. Or just turn notifications back on after Christmas.
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